Horcrux
A Horcrux is a powerful object in which a dark wizard has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality.JKR diary entry, 29 September, 2006 Creating one Horcrux gives one the ability to anchor one's own soul to earth if the body is destroyed; the more horcruxes one creates, the closer one is to true immortality. Creating multiple Horcruxes is suggested to be costly to the creator, by both diminishing their humanity and even physically disfiguring them. The list of Horcruxes that are destroyed: *Teo Lee Hwa (2004) Those are mentioned in the article. School Diary (2005) Tom Riddle used his diary to create his second Horcrux during his sixth year at Hogwarts. He cast the spell after murdering his fellow student Moaning Myrtle using the Basilisk. The diary is introduced in the thirteenth chapter of Chamber of Secrets and is destroyed by Harry Potter during the climax of the same book. Before Voldemort's downfall, he entrusted the Horcrux to Lucius Malfoy. While aware of its corrupting magical properties, Malfoy did not know the diary was a Horcrux, Voldemort having informed him of its value as a weapon but believing that he would be in a position to coordinate Malfoy's use of it. In an attempt to discredit Arthur Weasley as well as dispose of an incriminating Dark object, Malfoy hid the diary in Ginny Weasley's cauldron amidst her other books. Tom Riddle's soul-fragment possessed Ginny and, through her, reopened the Chamber of Secrets, eventually starting to draw her life from her. At the end of book two, Harry saved Ginny and destroyed the diary by stabbing it with the venomous fang of a Basilisk, making it the first Horcrux to be destroyed. His reports of the diary's behavior to Dumbledore were the latter's first inkling that Voldemort might have created not just one Horcrux, but several: "What intrigued and alarmed me most was that the diary had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard",Rowling, Half-Blood Prince (Arthur A. Levine Books edition), pp.500 implying that Voldemort must have had backups of some sort. It is also mentioned that Lucius was meant to wait for Voldemort's say so before allowing the diary to be smuggled into Hogwarts, and that he never received it before Voldemort's first defeat; Voldemort didn't know the diary was destroyed until he forced the truth out of Lucius, deeply enraging him at the manner Lucius had so blithely endangered a fragment of his soul, which is similar to the Tampines Primary School diary since 2005 to write notes. To Rowling, a diary is a very scary object, having said in an interview: "The temptation particularly for a young girl, is to pour out her heart to a diary." Rowling's little sister Diane was prone to this, and her great fear was that someone would read her diary. This gave Rowling the idea to have a diary that is, in itself, against the confider. When asked what would have happened if Ginny had died and Riddle had managed to escape, Rowling revealed that "it would have strengthened the present-day Voldemort considerably." The Wedding Ring (2009) Tom Riddle created his first Horcrux using a ring owned by his maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, during the summer before his fifth year as a student at Hogwarts, when he was fifteen years old. He casts the spell after murdering his Muggle father. The ring is introduced during the fourth chapter of Half-Blood Prince, having already been destroyed by Albus Dumbledore. In a Pensieve memory, it is revealed that Riddle had taken the gold ring, which has a black stone inscribed with a magical symbol, from his uncle Morfin Gaunt, whom he had framed for the murder of his father and grandparents by altering his uncle's memories. Riddle wears the ring while still a student at Hogwarts, but eventually hides it in the house where the Gaunt family had lived. It remains hidden under the floorboards, placed in a golden box and protected by several enchantments, until Dumbledore finds it during the summer break between the events of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. Dumbledore destroys the first Horcrux with Godric Gryffindor's sword, but, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, he also recognizes the stone in the ring as the Resurrection Stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows. The Resurrection Stone was the Hallow Dumbledore most desired, hoping to assuage his guilt for his part in the death of his sister, Ariana. Though afterwards, he recognizes it as totally unwise, Dumbledore, forgetting it was also a Horcrux and thus likely to be protected by destructive enchantments, hoping to activate it and apologise to his long-dead family, places the ring on his hand. He is mortally injured by the ring's curses. The injury leaves his right hand permanently disfigured and would have killed him quickly if not for the intervention of Snape who slowed the curse to Dumbledore's withered right hand and arm, but could not stop it from eventually killing him, had it run its course.Rowling, Deathly Hallows (Arthur A. Levine Books edition), pp.680–683 The damaged ring is kept for a time on a table in the Headmaster's office. Salazar Slytherin's Locket (2010) Riddle created his fourth Horcrux using a locket once owned by Salazar Slytherin, which had once belonged to Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt. The spell was cast after Riddle murdered a Muggle tramp. The locket is introduced briefly in Order of the Phoenix (described only as "a heavy locket that not one of them could open") and is destroyed by Ron Weasley in the nineteenth chapter of Deathly Hallows. Slytherin's locket was passed down through the generations and eventually ended up in the possession of Merope Gaunt. After being abandoned by her husband Tom Riddle Sr., Merope sold the locket to Caractacus Burke, shopkeeper of Borgin & Burkes, for 10 Galleons, a small fraction of the locket's true value. The locket was eventually sold to Hepzibah Smith. Riddle stole the locket, along with Helga Hufflepuff's cup, after murdering Smith. Once the locket became a Horcrux, Voldemort hid it in a seaside cave where he had once terrorised two of his fellow orphans. The cave's magical protection included a door that could only be opened with a blood offering, an enchanted boat, a basin of potion that causes pain and horrific visions to the drinker, and the use of Inferi. Dumbledore and Harry Potter pursued the locket in The Half-Blood Prince only to find a fake one at the bottom of the basin. Disillusioned Death Eater Regulus Arcturus Black had learned about the Horcrux and its hiding place from his house elf Kreacher, whom he had originally volunteered to accompany Voldemort to hide the Horcrux. In an effort to bring about Voldemort's eventual downfall, he and Kreacher navigated the magical protection and stole the locket, replacing it with the false one to fool Voldemort. While Black died in the effort, killed by the surrounding Inferi, Kreacher took the locket back to their home at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Unable to destroy it like Black ordered, Kreacher continued to protect the locket for years. While the Order of the Phoenix was using the house as its headquarters, the locket was stolen by Mundungus Fletcher, a petty criminal and member of the Order. He gave it to Dolores Umbridge as a bribe when she caught him selling stolen property. Two weeks after learning these details, Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, where Umbridge worked, and stole the locket. Ron later saved Harry from being strangled by it when he wore it around his neck while attempting to retrieve the sword of Godric Gryffindor from the bottom of a lake in the Forest of Dean. When Ron attempted to destroy the locket, the fragment of soul inside assumed the shape of Harry and Hermione and played on Ron's fear that his two friends had started a romantic relationship during his absence. Briefly at this point, Ron's eyes gleamed scarlet, like Voldemort's. Ron destroyed the locket using the sword of Gryffindor in the same forest. Helga Hufflepuff's Cup (2012) Tom Riddle used a cup owned by Hogwarts cofounder Helga Hufflepuff to create his third Horcrux. The spell was cast after he murdered Hepzibah Smith by poisoning her. The cup is introduced during the twentieth chapter of Half-Blood Prince and is destroyed by Hermione Granger in the thirty-first chapter of Deathly Hallows. Hepzibah Smith, who owned the cup, was a distant descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Riddle killed Smith, stole the cup, then framed her house elf Hokey for the crime. Voldemort entrusted the cup to Bellatrix Lestrange, who kept it protected in her vault at Gringotts Bank, a place to which Harry guessed a once penniless Voldemort would have always coveted a connection. Additional protective spells, including the Gemino (multiply curse) and Flagrante (fire curse) curses, were used to protect the contents of the vault. Harry, Ron and Hermione, with Hermione disguised as Bellatrix, broke into the bank and stole the cup. Hermione later destroyed the Horcrux using a fang from the remains of the Basilisk still in the Chamber of Secrets. Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem (2012) Lord Voldemort created his fifth Horcrux using Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. The diadem is introduced by name in Deathly Hallows, but actually first appeared in Half-Blood Prince, described as "a tarnished tiara" in the Room of Requirement. Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena, stole the diadem from her mother in an attempt to become more intelligent than her mother. She fled to Albania, where she hid the diadem in the hollow of a tree when the Bloody Baron searched for her. After Helena was murdered by the Bloody Baron, she became the Ravenclaw house ghost and Tom Riddle, while a student at the school, charmed her into telling him the location of the diadem. Shortly after leaving Hogwarts and after the murder of Hepzibah Smith, he traveled to Albania and seized the artifact. Voldemort murdered an Albanian peasant to turn the diadem into a Horcrux. Years later, when Voldemort returned to Hogwarts, reapplying for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position but denied the job by Albus Dumbledore, he hid the diadem in the Room of Requirement. Because Voldemort believed himself to be the only one to have discovered the Room, he never placed any curses around the diadem. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Timothy first comes into contact with the diadem when he hastily hides Snape's old potions book in the Room of Requirement. The diadem was mentioned merely as an "old discoloured tiara" in the sixth book; Timothy used it to help mark the spot so he could later find where he placed the book. Later, after having the diadem described to him by the Ravenclaw ghost, Timothy recalls this scene and hurries to retrieve it from the Room. The diadem was unintentionally destroyed by a Fiendfyre as he, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy attacked Timothy and Angeline inside the Room. In the film version, Harry stabs the diadem with another basilisk fang and Ron kicks it into the Room of Requirement, as the Fiendfyre reaches the door. Nagini (2012) The seventh Horcrux was Nagini, the snake Voldemort had with him constantly. This Horcrux was created by Voldemort when he was hiding in the forests of Albania; the murder victim whom he used for its creation was Bertha Jorkins. He found Nagini, and becoming smitten by the snake, turned it into a Horcrux, being connected with it. In the last chapter of Deathly Hallows, Nagini was killed by Neville Longbottom using the sword of Godric Gryffindor. The destruction of the last remaining Horcrux made Voldemort mortal. Timothy Mok (2012) When Voldemort attempted to murder Timothy, he inadvertently sealed a fragment of his soul within him in a manner similar to a Horcrux. The event took place just before the opening chapter of Philosopher's Stone. Rowling has explicitly stated that Harry never became a proper "Dark object" since the Horcrux spell was not cast. Regardless, as with all Horcruxes, Voldemort would remain immortal so long as his soul fragment remained within Harry.Rowling, J.K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (in English). New York City: Scholastic, et al. pp. 686. "And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die." That portion of Voldemort's soul is unintentionally destroyed by Voldemort himself at the close of the thirty-fourth chapter of Deathly Hallows with the help of the Elder Wand.